Attack of the Killer Regulators

Misguided rules on pesticide use could be a threat to the very honeybees the EU is trying to save.

By

Jon Entine

June 5, 2014 4:04 pm ET

Science can't be rushed. Usually legislators make policy decisions on controversial issues only after carefully weighing current research. But just the opposite has unfolded in the EU. European Commissioners last year passed a two-year ban on a class of pesticides known as neonicotinoids in a preemptive move to protect honeybees, after sketchy reports of higher-than-normal winter deaths among the arthropods. Now the unintended consequences of what seems like a hasty decision are emerging.